RS

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Palin or Bachmann, Vol. I

Many critics, several on RS, have just about quenched my fire for Sarah Palin.I guess I like her because she is not intimidated by the media.Or maybe it’s because she sounds like an average woman when she talks and not some over-prepped, Tel-E-Prom-Ter poseur.Maybe it is because she stood up to the oil cabal in Alaska and won.But, let me answer a few anticipated arguments against her running as a viable presidential candidate one by one.

First, if we can elect a freshman STATE senator with no experience at anything but community organizing, i.e. extorting money from various private and public entities, I will not even address the “underqualified”charge, except to say that Gov. Palin had more admin experience in ’08 than the “O” man had.Next, as to her supposed divisiveness, the lib media is going to make any conservative candidate appear “polarizing.”Look how they vilified a couple of rank middle-of-the-roaders like Bush ’41 and ’43!And as far as needing to stay home and take care of her family, I’d like to see anyone on the left make that remark.They would suddenly experience a huge Juan Williams moment for buying into a stereotype as crass as anything approaching “a woman’s place is in the home.”As for media hostility towards her, NO conservative is going to get an “even break” from them in this country.

Other critics say she has reached the tether end of her competency, i.e. the Peter Principle argument.It does not apply to Sarah Palin because she did not seek national celebrity or office.It was thrust upon her.Her neighbors encouraged her to run for the Wasilla city council.Others saw and appreciated that Sarah’s strength and intelligence could be used in the political realm long before she did.Indeed, you would have never heard of her had she not been persuaded to run for local office.And remember, it was John McCain who picked her out of the blue as his VP candidate, she did not offer or politic for it.

As far as Sarah Palin being a known quantity, i.e. damaged goods, this is probably the weakest argument.Everyone from Nixon to Kennedy to Reagan had been a known national quantity before being elected president.Besides, what is known is almost all admirable.She was raised in a modest home in Alaska.She raised five children herself in another modest, but godly home in Alaska.She courageously chose to have a baby with problems rather than taking the easy way out.She served twice in the city council, twice in the mayor’s office and again as governor of the state.She transmitted these values to her family as she now has a son serving in Afghanistan as we speak.

And finally, Gov. Palin is paying a huge personal price for what she did not ask for, but only accepted as her duty.She now has some intrusive man living next door who surveils her and her family’s every move.She is not rich.She does not live behind security fences and guard dogs.She was forced to resign from the governor’s office and self-promote in order to fend off specious ethics charges lodged against her by political enemies who neither experienced nor risked any repercussions, regardless of their accusations’ known veracity or lack thereof.Under Alaska law, she had to personally finance her defense against this unjustifiable calumny.And every one of these baseless counts has either been dropped or decided in her favor.

Yes, her enemies on the left know her and they are scared to death of her. Remember, she has been tried by the national political media fire and has come out a winner. She chose her family over politics. She has extricated herself from a vicious and totally unethical ethics attack and overcome. Once her domestic situation has calmed, she can choose to return to national politics. Let us welcome her in some capacity – especially since she will likely be the one to choose it.